No charges for break-in at Justin Trudeau’s home, ‘prowler’ entered the wrong house

OTTAWA — A drunken teenager with a bad sense of direction — and not a violent political saboteur — is being blamed for the security scare at Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s Ottawa home, police said Tuesday.

Police announced no charges will be laid in relation to the incident earlier this month, which sparked calls for a review of security measures for the high-profile politician.

Police said the evidence available doesn’t meet the threshold needed to support a criminal charge. And the culprit, they say, has written a personal letter of apology to the Trudeau family.

Staff Sgt. Kal Ghadban said the young man thought he was entering a friend’s house on the morning of Aug. 16, and text messages retrieved from his phone appear to back that story up.

“We did confirm there was some instructions given to him on his phone around that time of day from his friend, who lives nearby to enter the yard and enter through the unlocked door,” said Staff Sgt. Ghadban.

“He believed he was entering the proper residence of his friend and that was confirmed through text messages from the instructions,” he said. “This individual believed he was walking into a place he was allowed to be in.”

According to Staff Sgt. Ghadban, the intruder had no idea he was in Mr. Trudeau’s house nor that anyone was home. In fact, Mr. Trudeau’s wife and three young children were asleep upstairs and the Liberal leader was out of town.

Police said the young man never left the kitchen area, which he accessed through an unlocked door. The gate to the yard of the home was also unlocked, Staff Sgt. Ghadban said.

Once inside, the intruder realized he was in the wrong house and momentarily contemplated stealing what he thought were the “valuable” knives and electronics. He had a change of heart, and instead left a note out of remorse, police said. Police refused to release the note.

A source has said the note suggesting the family should lock its doors was placed on a line of “five or six large butcher knives” in the home.

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Staff Sgt. Ghadban said the intruder placed the knives near the other items he had thought about taking.

“He thought he was doing the right thing by leaving a note and apologizing and he thought that would probably be the end of it.”

The man eventually made it to the Rockcliffe Park house of his friend, which Staff Sgt. Ghadban said was “very, very close.”

The man turned himself in Friday after recognizing himself from the security video police had released.

He has no criminal record or history with police and doesn’t live in Rockcliffe, an exclusive Ottawa neighbourhood.

“It appears he realized that he had entered a home, but he didn’t realize the magnitude of his actions until Friday when he actually saw his own picture in the newspaper. He decided to come in holding that newspaper in hand to the front desk here and said ‘It looks like this is me, I think I did this’,” said Staff Sgt. Ghadban.

“During the interview he did ask for an opportunity to write a letter of apology. We gave him that opportunity.”

Kate Purchase, Mr. Trudeau’s director of communications, said in a brief statement: “We fully respect the Ottawa Police Services’ responsibility to make this determination.”